Compatible Partners
by jewelmonkey
Summary: For the first time, Roxas goes on a mission with Saix, coming back home scarred. AkuDem friendship, Akuroku friendship.


**Compatible Partners**

After a particularly hard mission, Number Thirteen of the Organization slumped into the seat besides Axel on one of the couches in the Grey Area. Nobody else was around besides Demyx, who sat across from the pair, strumming the strings on his sitar with a peaceful expression.

"Another mission down", Axel grinned, mussing up his friend's hair affectionately. Roxas didn't even have the energy to bat his hand away. He sighed and copied Axel's posture, leaning back against the couch while propping his boots onto the table.

"Today's mission was really difficult", Roxas huffed, massaging his shoulders to ease his tense muscles. He groaned at the sharp pain. "Hordes of heartless everywhere.."

Axel raised an eyebrow, a small amused smile tugging at his thin lips. "You don't say... C'mon Roxas, Heartless too much for you?"

He chuckled at Roxas' steely gaze and raised two hands in mock-surrender. "'Kidding! Sheesh."

The room lapsed back into a comfortable silence as Axel shifted slightly in his seat and Roxas continued to massage his shoulder. Demyx flicked a couple more strings on his instrument (weapon) and the soft melodies carried in the air, which caused Axel's eyes to hone in on it.

Demyx, either oblivious to the stare or ignoring it, started to hum along with the music until -

"Aren't you supposed to be on patrol duty right now?"

Hearing Axel's tone that carried a hint of accusation, Demyx opened his teal eyes and glanced at the Flurry of Dancing Flames. "I already finished, so Xigbar is taking my place."

The red-haired man said nothing more, but he wasn't the type to be silent for long. He leaned forward, dropping his feet to the ground with a dull thump. He smirked across the table towards Demyx's face. "Instead of playing on that thing, why don't we have a little bet?"

The water-wielder frowned suspiciously, his fingers hovering over the base of his sitar. "What kind of bet?"

Roxas looked on in indifference as Axel shrugged and created a sound between a snicker and a sigh. "Oh I don't know. Let's see who can take out the most Heartless in a single mission."

Demyx humphed and crossed his arms, his weapon vanishing instantly, leaving only a few bubbles behind. "You know that I'm not good at battling. That's not a fair game."

Roxas noticed the twitch in Axel's furrowed brows and held back a smile. Axel was never one to be patient.

"Okayyyy then, let's add on more. We'll do recon at that new world Saix spotted the other day. Nobody investigated it yet."

Demyx paled at the thought of a new world; no doubt there would be foreign Heartless there! However, before he could sputter a protest, Axel had already got up and grabbed Demyx's arm to pull him to the other side of the room.

"A-Axel!", Demyx shrieked, struggling against his comrade's grip, but failed. He glanced around frantically and spotted a laughing Roxas on the couch. "Roxas! Help!"

"S-Sorry Demyx", Roxas said between rounds of laughter, "You're on your own. I can't stop Axel once he sets his mind to something."

Number Nine looked on the verge of crying as he was pushed into the portal Axel had summoned. The latter hung back and stood beside the darkness he created, before looking over his shoulder and smiling. "Have a good time resting Roxas, you'll need it."

Roxas waved a hand in farewell as Axel walked into the portal gracefully, quite the contrary of Demyx.

* * *

Roxas had accidentally fallen asleep on the couch. During his nap, other members had walked in to the room, either staying or promptly leaving again.

The blonde woken up to the sound of talking. He pushed himself up onto the couch in a sitting position and scanned the room with tired eyes.

Luxord was sitting on one of the couches across the room, shuffling his deck of cards. Saix was standing near the large windows, staring out at Kingdom Hearts. Axel and Demyx were walking down the hall and entering the Grey Area, heading straight towards the pack of couches where Roxas sat.

"I can't believe this", Axel muttered under his breath, falling into the spot beside Roxas. Demyx, holding a sea-salt ice-cream bar, quietly sat across from them.

"How'd the mission go?", Roxas yawned. He didn't fail to see the irritated expression on Axel's face. "Who won the bet?"

Number Eight blew a sigh, running his hands through his hair. It was a habit he did only when frustrated or at a loss for words. "I won. Obviously. But he got in the way."

Roxas blinked, pausing in the motion of rubbing his eyes. "Demyx got in the way of what?"

Demyx sniffled and licked his treat. "Axel threw one of his chakrams at me."

The smallest of the three suddenly snorted, causing everyone in the room to look over at him. Saix turned back to the window in the same moment as Luxord picked up his cards and walked out of the room.

"Sorry. That's just funny to picture."

Axel scoffed in disbelief and crossed his arms, turning his head away sharply. "It wasn't funny out there. I got scraped from the Heartless trying to get him out. It felt like jumping into hell trying to save him. You would think they would dodge and jump out of the way, yeah? In the end, I sent my Assassins out to do the dirty work for once."

Roxas chuckled and Axel continued, waving a hand around in the air as he spoke, "So we left once I cleaned up, and since I'm a nice guy, I bought him some ice-cream. I'm the one who won the bet and I didn't get anything! One thing I learned from today is to avoid being partnered up with that guy."

Demyx didn't say anything, but just stared at the floor gloomily. Every other second, he would idly chew on his popsicle.

* * *

Roxas understood the difference in every member's fighting ability. Or in Demyx's case, lack thereof.

When paired up with Axel, the job was done fairly quickly. However, Axel seemed more laid-back, letting Roxas take out more of the Heartless as if feeding his experience. Demyx preferred to not do anything, usually hanging back and hitting the enemies with his water instead of close-combat. Working with Luxord was easy; the strategy was 'whoever-gets-to-the-heartless-first-gets-to-kill-them'. Xaldin, who is used to working alone, always expected to finish with haste. Xigbar liked conversation, though his fighting skills were more than up to the task. However, he didn't like the Organization being too visible in their workings and hid more than fought.

There were two members who he have yet to do any missions together with: Xemnas and Saix.

It was just him however, because he remembered Axel complaining about having frequent missions with Number Seven. As far as he knew, nobody else had any missions with Xemnas.

So it came as a surprise when Saix sought him out the next day, claiming that they had a mission together.

"We're leaving in a few hours, once I deliver tasks to the others. I expect you to be ready in the Grey Area before then."

He spun on his heel and left down the hallway, leaving a dumbstruck Roxas beside his bedroom door.

* * *

"Aw Roxas, why'd you land in a mission with him of all Nobodies? Then again, Saix is the one dishing out the missions... Can't blame you for getting caught in his web. He must want to keep an eye on you for some reason", Axel shook his head, looking at Roxas with a pitying gaze. "I wish you luck out there. No matter what, stay out of his way, okay?"

"Huh?"

Axel dropped his gaze and caught the other's vision. He sighed and smiled fondly, reaching out to ruffle Roxas' spikes. "You'll know what I'm talking about. When I say Saix can go berserk, I mean it literally. Once you witness it, you'll appreciate my fire a whole lot more. You won't even be able to complain about how your jacket gets singed during missions with me."

Roxas nudged Axel's hand away and tried to rearrange his spikes accordingly. "I don't know what you're saying, Axel. Stop talking in riddles."

The red-head only barked a laugh and went back to reading reports on his own mission.

Utterly confused, Roxas rubbed the back of his neck. "What..?"

* * *

Saix had teleported the two of them to Halloween Town. Roxas had been here a few times and on those ocassions, completely alone. Being here with Saix felt strange.

No words were exchanged as they headed down the road towards the main part of town. They passed the black iron gates, the creepily carved pumpkins, and the strange lantern-like ornaments. Roxas continued to glance around despite having been to this world multiple times; the environment was still creepy and he stood his ground, his hands itching to call the Keyblade if trouble arose. Beside him, Saix looked nonchalant, keeping his head straight ahead.

They entered the town center where the fountain was located. Roxas stared at the green water issuing from the fountain tip, almost forgetting that he was on a mission.

"What's our mission anyway? You never told me..", Roxas asked, looking at Saix out of the corner of an eye.

"It's to do some investigating. Apparently, there's an unknown Heartless roaming these streets and our job is to eliminate it."

"Oh", Roxas said, his expectations dropping. Heartless-hunting, of course. He thought they were here to do some recon, hoping to duck out of fighting this week.

He didn't notice that he was left behind by Saix, who grew tired of waiting and continued on ahead.

Roxas sighed and reluctantly accepted, "Okay, let's do... this..?"

He blinked at Saix's retreating back before shouting in indignation and running to catch up to his superior.

* * *

The next day, Roxas was nowhere to be found. While off-duty, Axel decided to search the castle for his small companion. It was mostly out of boredom, he didn't have anything else to do afterall.

He found the lowest ranked member in his bedroom, laying down on the bed.

"Are you allowed to be slacking off like this?", Axel inquired, his face contorted in confusion. He shut the door behind him before striding towards the bed, looking down at his friend. Roxas' eyes were closed, but that didn't fool the other Nobody for a second. "Really, Saix will have your head for -"

"Don't say his name", Roxas muttered, the slightest of frowns gracing his features.

Axel tilted his head, "Why not?"

Roxas refused to say, and a heavy silence descended over the both of them. Axel fixed his stare over to the window until it all clicked in his mind. A smirk curled his mouth as he drawled, "Ohhhh, I see. You saw his true form."

The blonde jolted in bed, and it didn't go unnoticed by Axel. He chuckled and folded his arms, nodding. "Yeah, Saix... Saix can be one piece of work. I told you. When he goes Berserk-"

Roxas groaned and jumped forward into a sitting position, holding his head. "Stop! I'm trying to erase what I saw yesterday. The sight of Saix turning into that-that beast... ugh, it even came into my nightmares", he grumbled, snapping his eyes onto Axel with a sharp glare. "And you're not helping."

Not able to hold it in any longer, Axel laughed hard. He clutched his stomach as he doubled-over. While he tried to catch his breath, Roxas' eyes were in slits and his hands kept clenching and unclenching, as if contemplating of summoning his weapon.

"C'mon, Roxas", Axel said, his eyes dancing with fiery amusement. "Let's go get some ice-cream."

**-fin-**


End file.
